A G-Man's Journal [Mass Market Paperback]

Oliver Buck Revell (Author), Dwight Williams (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1999

Featuring a foreword by John Walsh, an insider's look at the FBI by one of its most celebrated investigators describes numerous cases and offers unsparing portraits of J. Edgar Hoover, George Bush, Janet Reno, Rudolph Giuliani, and others. Reprint.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A true insider's peek into the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Washington halls of power, A G-Man's Journal establishes its pull-no-punches tone with a bang and a snap as Oliver "Buck" Revell recounts his personal interview with infamous FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover on the first day Revell was assigned to headquarters: "You know," he quotes Hoover, "the president (Kennedy) was the one who ordered the investigation of Martin Luther King."

Revell, who served more than 30 years with the FBI, reached the second-highest position available in the bureau, that of assistant director. His differences of opinion with various FBI directors after Hoover make great reading, though his criticisms of current director Louis Freeh are surprising given the general applause Freeh has received from policymakers and pressmen. Among certain elements, Revell has a reputation as a member of Reagan's "shadow government," responsible for rogue policy decisions outside the scope of the president's constitutional powers. Many conspiracy buffs suggest he played a less-than-honorable role in both the Iran-Contra affair and the tragic bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988. While not directly addressing the notoriety surrounding him, Revell manages to make clear that he believed throughout his career that he was doing exactly what he should have as a representative of the FBI, performing his duties with honor. --Tjames Madison --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Second in command at the FBI for 11 years, Revell talks about some of his biggest cases.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 640 pages
• Publisher: Pocket; Reprint edition (November 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671568000
• ISBN-13: 978-0671568009
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,273,621 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting read, a bit cluttered, November 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: A G-Man's Journal (Mass Market Paperback)

Revell, in this co-authored book, believes in the philosophy "never say in 350 pages what you can say in 570."
The events are apparently purely chronological, and almost stream-of-consciousness. There's a lot of jumping from subject to subject, with little transition or unifying theme. While the book has a bibliography and index, it's lacking a glossary, which would be helpful for those of us who don't use acronyms like OSG, JSOC, CSG, and CISPES on a daily basis.
The book would be less cluttered if there wasn't a compulsion to include every incident in which Revell wished to claim credit, or rebut an allegation of misconduct against him. For instance, the liner notes claim that Revell "participated in ... the JFK assassination [investigation]." It turns out Revell wasn't even in the FBI at the time; he was a Marine who was liaison to FBI agents who were interviewing Marines who had known Oswald during Oswald's Marine service.
It is an interesting account of agent Revell's career, and FBI history and lore, mainly from within the FBI bureaucracy looking down, and contains some almost-hidden nuggets of insight on personalities and events you probably won't find elsewhere.
Read _No Heroes_ by Danny O. Coulson for a street agent perspective on many of the same events.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Exciting Information With Revealing Insight, January 15, 2000

By 

CoolAl27 (Chicago, Illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A G-Man's Journal (Mass Market Paperback)

It is an informative novel which gives exciting insight into one of the most famous law enforcement agencies of America. Not only learning about the cases that Oliver Revell worked on, but knowing how others in the FBI, including J. Edgar Hoover, thought and said is purely fascinating. This is a must read to anyone interested in the FBI, law enforcement, or federal government agencies.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Memoir is inaccurate, not apolitical, and not truthful, February 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: A G-Man's Journal: A Legendary Career Inside the FBI- FROM The Kennedy Assassination to the Oklahoma City Bombing (Hardcover)

The controversy over the Helsinki matter was immediate and long running...no just unresolved. Revell's covering of it in his book is accurate...he is inaccurate on Thurman for one. Accuracy (and honesty) is like virginity - either you've got it or you don't.

Even though the threat was apparently circulated within some parts of the Department of State, it certainly did not receive widespread dissemination. - European papers showed it posted in Moscow and Karen Decker said - not anonymously, and on tape - that is was disseminated. "Widely" is relative - there were NO EUROPEAN STATE DEPARTMENT EMPLOYEES RETURNING TO THE US 3 DAYS BEFORE CHRISTMAS ON THE US FLAG CARRIER - res ipsi loquitor.

At the time I was was assigned to a major European Embassy, with among other things, responsibilty for Internatinal Terrorism and I did not learn of the Helsinki matter until the PA103 tragedy. Well the BKA gave those pictures to as many government and airline agencies as possible. So its an anonymous post vs Karen Decker on ABC - if true, not a good job why brag about it ? But somebody warned those embassy people and posted those warnings.

Immediately upon learning of the threat, a team of FBI and Finnish police were dispatched to conduct an extensive investigation to resolve the Helsinki call, which they did, and it was in no way connected to PA103. To suggest otherwise simply flys in the face of the facts. What facts ? The face saving newspaper accounts a week after the fact - Chris Revell's apparently simultaneous of rebooking and the Helsinki warnings are actions that speak louder than anything Buck Revell has to say.

Why anyone would think that the FBI and the many other agencies, both from the US and Europe, who investigated PA103 would ignore such a significant development is incomprehensible. - incromprehensible to anyone oblivious to Middle Eastern affairs, oil interests, or Iranian politics.

Conspircy theorists (a derisive rhetorical flourish ...anything involving more than a single individual can be referred to as "a conspiracy" - aimless) fail to accept that the investigation involved thousands of individuals from hundreds of agencies, all of whom were trying to solve the largest muder in American history. Hardly thousands except at the most trivial level; and interestingly neither the media nor Revell treat it as "the largest murder in American history" - although its true. But in fact it was a necessary payback for the ghastly Vincennes incident - which was an equally homicidal event. A dyed in wool patriot like Revell overlooks that.

These individuals were dedicated, professional and for the most part, apolitical.

According to Seymour Hersh "Revell can be a very political bureaucratic, for sure, and has been...." -- Revell's exchanges with Bruce Porter, comments on Louis Freeh, and on Sessions shows Revell is a political as you can get. The handling of Lockerbie was just doing the companies bidding (and if he used the inside information to save his kid along with the Embassy people he was only being human ...but if so it proves that on Dec 5-7, 1988 Revell did not think it was a "hoax" .... and he does not have what it takes to own up to that.)

They would not have been swayed to lower their standards by any administration or group. And I can assure you that there was never any pressure from any source on the investigators. -- facts trump everything, but circumstantial evidence and named, taped accounts, and published facts trump anonymous tipsters, not published, presenting no facts.